Pygmy: Disability or South American Tribal People?
I've never taken my formal education very seriously. I skip a lot of reading, ditch a lot of classes and quickly forget crammed details. Resultingly, my information base is limited. An example is found in this recent conversation with my soon to be ex-husband:
"Pygmies. Aren't they, you know, Amazon people?" We had been drinking, and he said it while laughing, but it was a serious question.
"Amazon people?" I wondered what exactly it means to be an Amazon person. Thought about all the tall, thick girls I'd ever referred to as Amazon Woman. This made me feel wrong, and I decided I shouldn't label Amazon Women anymore. If I were having this conversation with anyone else, I would be freaked out thinking I would say something wrong and getting myself protested. But, since it was him, I welcomed the opportunity to get things straight and prevent future offensive pygmy mistakes. Might as well get all of the inappropriate questions and politically incorrect assumptions out of the way, he's divorcing my ass anyhow.
"Yeah, pygmies, you know, from that Amazon tribe. Right?"
"That Amazon tribe? Isn't pigmy just a name for short people, the kind that's always portrayed as slaves in movies? 'Hey pygmy, engage in some sort of cliche tribal duty, climb a tree or something.' Like that! It's a disability, not a tribal affiliation. Can't you picture that one movie in your head, with the pygmy running around with a purse tied around his waist? Fuck, what was the name of that movie..." Lost in my own head, I knew I'd seen that in a movie. It wasn't The Gods Must Be Crazy...
"A fanny pack? You're seriously clowning on me? Based on some nameless movie about tribal people wearing fanny packs? I don't think that counts. And since when is shortness a disability?" He's a little on the short-side himself, so it's a touchy subject. I conceded.
"Damn, that's true. I can't believe we're taking this all so lightly. Watch what you say at work, you wouldn't want that short woman to get offended when you talk about pygmies. Say it twice and you've created yourself a hostile work environment. Grab her ass again and you're going down the yellow brick road to sexual harassmentville."
"You say it twice, and what about that guy you worked with last summer whose ass you were always checking out, who felt your breasts when you 'accidently' bumped into him in the elevator!? Twice!?! Now who is going to get sued for sexual harassment?" He had managed to bring up old stuff, and was just plain taunting me. Weakly.
"Psht. I'm not gonna get sued for a sexual harassment, I'm a girl." It's a legal angle I am not so happy about, but I was willing to capitalize on gender inequality if it meant winning an argument with him. Besides, I hoped he would call me out on it. He didn't. My post-Amazon Woman realization guilt came back and I felt the need to begin a long conversation about gender stereotypes and the law. But, like I said, we had been drinking. I settled for something simple. "You're a moron."
"Whatever. You're a pygmy, the Amazon kind."
"Whatever. You're a pygmy, the disabled kind."
For anyone willing to bank on the results of my 5-minute google-fu: Pygmy is a term primarily associated with shortness. Furthermore, while pygmy is used to describe people from equatorial regions, it is not limited to South American folk. Also, there are lots of pygmy animals.
"Pygmies. Aren't they, you know, Amazon people?" We had been drinking, and he said it while laughing, but it was a serious question.
"Amazon people?" I wondered what exactly it means to be an Amazon person. Thought about all the tall, thick girls I'd ever referred to as Amazon Woman. This made me feel wrong, and I decided I shouldn't label Amazon Women anymore. If I were having this conversation with anyone else, I would be freaked out thinking I would say something wrong and getting myself protested. But, since it was him, I welcomed the opportunity to get things straight and prevent future offensive pygmy mistakes. Might as well get all of the inappropriate questions and politically incorrect assumptions out of the way, he's divorcing my ass anyhow.
"Yeah, pygmies, you know, from that Amazon tribe. Right?"
"That Amazon tribe? Isn't pigmy just a name for short people, the kind that's always portrayed as slaves in movies? 'Hey pygmy, engage in some sort of cliche tribal duty, climb a tree or something.' Like that! It's a disability, not a tribal affiliation. Can't you picture that one movie in your head, with the pygmy running around with a purse tied around his waist? Fuck, what was the name of that movie..." Lost in my own head, I knew I'd seen that in a movie. It wasn't The Gods Must Be Crazy...
"A fanny pack? You're seriously clowning on me? Based on some nameless movie about tribal people wearing fanny packs? I don't think that counts. And since when is shortness a disability?" He's a little on the short-side himself, so it's a touchy subject. I conceded.
"Damn, that's true. I can't believe we're taking this all so lightly. Watch what you say at work, you wouldn't want that short woman to get offended when you talk about pygmies. Say it twice and you've created yourself a hostile work environment. Grab her ass again and you're going down the yellow brick road to sexual harassmentville."
"You say it twice, and what about that guy you worked with last summer whose ass you were always checking out, who felt your breasts when you 'accidently' bumped into him in the elevator!? Twice!?! Now who is going to get sued for sexual harassment?" He had managed to bring up old stuff, and was just plain taunting me. Weakly.
"Psht. I'm not gonna get sued for a sexual harassment, I'm a girl." It's a legal angle I am not so happy about, but I was willing to capitalize on gender inequality if it meant winning an argument with him. Besides, I hoped he would call me out on it. He didn't. My post-Amazon Woman realization guilt came back and I felt the need to begin a long conversation about gender stereotypes and the law. But, like I said, we had been drinking. I settled for something simple. "You're a moron."
"Whatever. You're a pygmy, the Amazon kind."
"Whatever. You're a pygmy, the disabled kind."
For anyone willing to bank on the results of my 5-minute google-fu: Pygmy is a term primarily associated with shortness. Furthermore, while pygmy is used to describe people from equatorial regions, it is not limited to South American folk. Also, there are lots of pygmy animals.
posted by Lex Fori at
11:32 AM
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